Vehicles for Sale Nearby

Removing stickers, labels, decals, glue, sap...

I have tried several suggestions for removing tree sap from my truck without any great results. I would be thankful for any advise on how to clean the sap without hurting the finish. I have used: bug & tar remover, Lighter fluid, may,.....

The BEST way to avoid this problem in the first place is to INSIST that NO stickers be put on the car at all or you won't sign the papers! That should be on your list of things to say when you first go shopping for a car. MOST of them are UGLY anyway!

My "5-STAR" dealer DID put one on despite the fact that I told them NOT to, but I left it because it's one of the nicest I've ever seen. It's a chrome sailboat with just the name Madison on it. That's the "short" name of the dealer and the town where he's located. It's right next to the words Chrysler on my trunk. I don't mind it at all or I would have had him take it off the day I went to pick up the car.

I won't let a dealer place their logo on my vehicle unless it is a nice license plate frame ie it serves some function. Those garish logos usually do nothing but trap wax and dirt. 3M makes an excellent adhesive remover and you can pick it up at NAPA stores.

I think this is a great topic for discussion! Do you have any wonderful suggestions or are you simply waiting to hear from others? We were lucky enough w/ our last new auto to get a dealer who put little adhesive stars, etc, as their logo. The pieces were so small they came off w/ no trouble whatsoever. Our other new auto must have slipped past the "advertising" guys because it had no dealer logo anywhere. Thank goodness because we were too caught up in the negotiating that I forgot to bring up the issue w/ the salesguy. Now we're in the market again & I really need to remember to put it on the purchase agreement that no dealer advertising shall be on our new car anywhere unless they'd like to pay me a monthly advertising fee!

I got a little wax on my new black rubber/plastic spash guards when I was waxing the car. Now I can't get the white residue off. I bought some mineral spirits on someones advice and tried that on them, but now they are even whiter than before. AARRGGH. Anybody have any advice on restoring them?

This is a little off-topic (I really want to know if I can safely remove the plastic plate the dealer put on the car (was there when I got there - was probably there within 2 seconds of rolling off the truck- It isn'e even on straight)).

I recently used Meguiar's tire gel successfully to remove some (fairly fresh) wax residue on textured black plastic parts on my new Odyssey. I have also used Aromorall and Mother's Back-To-Black with success, but they are alcohol-based and are apparently bad for rubber/plastic parts in the long run. Meguiar's is alcohol free and contains oils to condition rubber (and seems to work on plastic as well. I haven't found anything yet that's OK for flat black painted parts (Mother's B-T-B is for that, but again, the alcohol base).

I hate the gaudy air bag warning labels on my visors. I asked the saleswoman if I could remove them and she said she thought I'd ruin the visor if I tried. Have any of you tried? My warning labels are red, black and yellow on a white background. It doesn't look like a label that can be peeled off.

The labels on my Thunderchicken are silk-screened onto the fabric, so the only way to remove them is reupholstering the sunvisors. The manufacturers deliberately make them hard to get off because they give important, albeit ugly, warnings. My grandfather would use a razorblade to take the dealer stickers off, and he could do it without damaging the paint. (He was an industrial painter for 40-some odd years, so he had lots of practice). My car has a design actually made into the tinting on the back glass, and another one that was tinted over, so the only way to remove them without ruining my back window is to replace it. Considering the expense and how wasteful it is to replace perfectly good glass, I'm going to live with the designs.

The little plastic pieces that the dealer glues on the back of the car, exactly how do I get them off? I saw a hair dryer mentioned to get "stickers" off. Does that apply to the plastic stuff too. IF so, What do I do? Use the hair dryer as a hammer and knock them off? Don't mean to be dense, but really don't want to screw up my paint. I did see the reference to the 3-m adhesive remover from Napa. Thanks in advance somebody for taking me by the hand and leading me through this.

There's only one way I know of to get them off, and that's to pry them off with something. You better use a flat plastic impliment, or you booger up your paint. Then use the 3M stuff to get any resedue off. Alcohol (not like beer!) works well too, but keep it off plastic and rubber. I man I go to church with runs his own paint & body shop, and when he volunteered his time to repaint the church van, I helped him sand it down, and he pulled the dealer emblem, along with all the ones reading "Ford" "Econoline", ect, off with a putty knife. Since the van was to be painted anyway, he didn't worry about protecting the paint. Nor did he put the emblems back on when he got done. No one that I know of complained.

Some of those plastic emblems have plastic posts on the back which go through holes in the sheetmetal and is secured with a nut.

Like an ear ring.

I not sure if this style of emblem is still being used.

If possible, look behind where the emblem is and see if it is mechanically fastened to the vehicle BEFORE you start prying it off, otherwise the sheetmetal can be bent and scratched requiring a lot more bodywork.

Factory Emblems such as those that say "Mercury" or "Grand Marquis" were attached that way back in the old days, but dealer emblems ("Arrow Ford") never were. The reason being if the holes weren't punched in just the right spot, the emblem wouldn't fit on, and you have holes in the back of a car you were trying to sell. At some point along the line, the factory followed the dealers' lead, and took to using a very permanent glue. While helping prep the church van for a paint job (88 or 89 model Ford Econoline) the dealer tag was stuck on with strong, double sided tape that a strong solvent would scrub off, while the factory applied emblems were stuck on with some sort of glue that turned to plastic when it dried and required a power sander and a coat of paint to erase the evedence that it was ever there. The emblems on my 78 Mercury have the metal posts, but the ends of the posts are cone shaped, and once you forced it through the holes, the flat ends of the cones hold it in place. Put enough force on it, and it will come off, but it won't fall off going down the road.

If you have one of those ugly black plastic tags with the dealers name planted on the back of your car, I have any easy way for removal. Get a piece of dental floss and a hair dryer. First, heat up the area with the hair dryer. Then, while the area is still hot, slide the dental floss behind the plastic and it will pop rigth off. It worked great on my New Beetle last fall. Good luck!

What is the best way to remove parking stickers that are pasted on the inside of the rear window?

These decals cover some of the defroster stripes, so I sure do not want to use a razor blade or anything that will damage the defroster. Unfortunately, had to put them there to satisfy the security forces that patrol our parking lots.Have to turn in these decals when I retire and no longer will be coming to work.

I'd try the hair dryer trick. If you can get enough off to turn in (I'm sure they won't want to reuse them), you can probably scrub the rest off with alcohol (the rubbing kind, not the Budweiser kind). For future reference, many of my friends leave part of the wax paper backing on their parking permits here at ACU, so that they have something to grab and pull when the time comes to remove it.

rea98d: Thanks for the input. No they won't reuse the decals, they want them back for security purposes. This is a Federal Government installation and you can imagine how gun shy they are after the OKC bombing. Too late about leaving on the backing, they have been long gone.

How long does one heat the decal with the hair dryer?

If I had known that they wanted the decals returned when I retire, I would have used a spotof glue or a small strip of scotch tape, but did not think to ask when I procured them. One gets old too fast, and smart too late.

LAST YEAR I HAD TO HAVE A CRACKED WINDSHIELD REPLACED.I ASKED ABOUT THE INSPECTION STICKER AND THE REGISTRATION STICKER ON CRACKED WINDSHIELD MAN TOLD ME "NO PROBLEM.HE COULD PEEL THEM OFF". HE SPRAYED THE STICKERS WITH A SPRAY CAN OF GLASS CLEANER.(ANY BRAND WILL DO). AFTER APROX 5 MINUTES THE OLD STICKERS WHERE PEELED OFF WITH NO EFFORT AND NO DAMAGE TO THEM AND PUT THEM ON THE NEW WINDSHIELDGIVE THIS A TRY. EDD

Will give that a try when the time comes, andthen if necessary use the hair dryer. If worsecomes to worse, will take out the old windshieldwith the sticker on it and take it to security office and see what they want to do with the stickers and windshield then.

They should have told me when they issued the stickers that I would need to return them if I got rid of the car or transferred or retired and was not coming to the office anymore. Would have fastened them with a small strip of tape that would have fit between the defroster filaments.What a bunch of buttheads.

Here's a trick I learned from a car salesman who drove several different cars each week. He commuted through a toll tunnel and had to have a sticker fastened inside the windshield to use his (discounted) commuter ticket. The sticker was supposed to be permanently attached by peeling off the clear outer layer and exposing the adhesive. This fellow left the outer clear protective layer intact and placed a drop or two of mineral oil or baby oil on the tag. It stayed in place when applied and was very easily removed. For those who need to attach a permanent sticker to the inside of a glass surface, but are concerned about getting it off later, you might wish to try this. The layer covering the adhesive will have to be transparent for this method to work.

I saw a post that indicated using glass cleaner seemed to work to remove window stickers. Has anyone tried that (or anyother approach) for exterior pin stripe removal.? I am thinking about removing mine, it's been on for 11 years, so I anticipate it will likely not come off easy, even with heat applied.

I have a six-month-old car, and I want to put a couple of bumper stickers on it, like I've always had on my other cars. This is my first new car, though, and I don't want to mess up the paint when they get old. Anyone have any suggestions for removing fading bumper stickers?

My other option is to get a "bumper sticker caddy," so I can suction them to the inside of my rear windshield.